Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 23, Issue 4, 2017; Page No.(1998-2004)

INFLUENCE OF SEED PRIMING AND FERTILIZERS ON FIELD PERFORMANCE OF BLACK MUSTARD (BRASSICA NIGRA L.)

Yaghoub Raei, Hajar Valipour and Kazem Ghassemi-Golezani

Abstract

Laboratory tests and a field experiment were conducted to evaluate the effects of seed priming and fertilizers on some important traits of black mustard during 2016. The laboratory tests were carried out as completely randomized design with four replications and field experiment was arranged as a factorial set of treatments based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Factors consisted of seed priming (P1: unprimed, P2: hydro-priming and P3: priming with 1% KNO3 for 8 hours at 20±1ºC) and four levels of fertilizer (F1: control, F2: chemical fertilizer consisted of 250 kg/ha urea + 200 kg/ha triple superphosphate, F3: biological fertilizer consisted of nitrogen fixing (Azoto Barvar 1) and phosphate solubilizing bacterial (Barvar 2) and F4: 125 kg/ha urea + 100 kg/ha triple superphosphate + biological fertilizer). On the basis of laboratory tests, seed priming significantly increased germination rate and reduced electrical conductivity of seed leachate. Percentage and rate of seedling emergence were considerably enhanced in field as seeds were primed. Seed priming and fertilizer improved ground cover, biological and grain yields per unit area. Biological fertilizer was not only able to increase the performance of black mustard, but also decreased chemical fertilizers application by 50%. Therefore, it was concluded that seed priming and biological fertilizer could be used as effective methods to progress yield and to decrease chemical fertilizers application in the production of black mustard.

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